Introduction
The degree to which technology has become a part of everyday life and everyday business has seen a change in the way business approaches how they manage the money, the processes and the systems within an organisation.
As computing becomes more widely used within an organisation and takes a more prominent vital within the vital processes of that organisation, it is important to make sure that an appropriate level of attention is given to this computing.
Technology have come a long way over the past few years and are now seen as vital elements of any company. As such, they are allocated larger budgets but must also be able to manage a greater amount of work.
But after you have spent a large amount of your budget on developing an IT network and seen the needs of your business change, how do you ensure that the IT you are using can keep up with demand? Moreover, how can you achieve this without spending a large amount of money?
This is the role undertaken by IT management software and procedures.
Every business and every situation will have different specifications and will create unique challenges. To meet these requirements there are a number of different technologies and approaches that can be implemented to help manage the IT infrastructure of your organisation.One of these options is discussed below.
Software Asset Management
Software Asset Management (SAM) is designed to do exactly what it says on the tin – monitoring and controlling the deployment and usage of software programs within your company. It is a business process rather than a distinct area of expertise and is becoming a more essential part of the modern commercial environment, particularly for corporations operating in the field of Information Technology.
SAM is not simply a program for technicians rolling out software across a large corporate network, but can be a critical tool to help improve performance at many levels of a company. The objectives of SAM include monitoring costs of the IT infrastructure within a business, negating legal threats associated with incorrect software license usage and sustaining high levels of productivity by making sure software is up to date and fit for its purpose.
The practice of software asset management is often seen as an unnecessary evil due to the abstract nature of what it is designed to deal with, and the financial case for employing a SAM solution is not always obvious until a broad audit of the software infrastructure of a company has been done.
Monetary benefits remain the most driving business factor when choosing to operate software asset management software within a company. Every company needs to make profit after all and revenue is a very measurable metric. The financial benefits of software asset management do certainly exist however.
An increasingly large proportion of a company’s IT budget is spent on software licensing so there is a vital need to invest to correctly manage this spending. As organisations expand and diversify, their software needs can change radically and hardware and software can quickly become out of date. There is no requirement to spend money to maintain the licenses on this outdated software, which is where software asset management really delivers an edge.
SAM is not limited to simply the IT department of your organisation either. As a management cycle it will often include many of the departments within a organisation, including Finance Human Resources, to ensure that it runs as efficiently as possible.
One highly recommend software asset management package say Centennial resellers has to be SAM.Suite; a modern solution to modern IT licensing challenges.
Why follow a SAM Strategy?
Having heard the multiple benefits of deploying a SAM solution, how do you know that it would be correct for your business? Every business is different and has its own unique set of challenges and advantages, so any strategy you will use needs to be tailored to these specific characteristics.
There are more than just monetary benefits that can be achieved through the management of licensing and maintenance agreements across an organisations IT system. Productivity can be hugely boosted by ensuring that employees have the latest editions of software available under current licenses held, and communication within the company is helped when support staff know exactly what is deployed on every workstation under their control.
Financial Savings
As discussed previously, perhaps the most convincing reason to utilise SAM within your business is the potential financial savings that can be made. The profitability of your business is always going to be the bottom line so any system that can help to increase this profitability by lowering costs is one that should be evaluated.
The most immediate way that SAM can help to reduce costs is by identifying any software running on your corporate IT system that is no longer necessary. The software might not be being used anymore, it may be too outdated to be of use or it may be duplicated on your system.
By removing these items of software that are no longer a benefit to the operation of your organisation you are streamlining a large chunk of your IT system. Paying for unneeded software licenses and support and maintenance agreements means that more finance can be spent on the critical sections of your IT system.
Mitigate Risk
A surprising percentage of software that is actively used in the corporate environment is either licensed incorrectly or not licensed at all. Running any amount of unmonitored software on your IT network is not advised, because when left unchecked it can become incredibly unpredictable. This is becoming an increasingly frustrating factor for IT managers.
Rogue software programs can be introduced into an unmonitored IT system in a number of ways. Software may have been included when your IT hardware was originally purchased although the initial software licenses may have expired. Without the correct security policies in place, users may also be able to load their own software onto the network. Operating a corporate IT system in this unmanaged way will almost certainly lead to trouble.
The risk of running unlicensed software on your system is clear. When anything goes wrong with the hardware or software platform supporting your critical processes, how do you manage the situation? Running a complex software system without the appropriate support can create a metaphorical minefield when it comes to disaster recovery and can seriously limit your responsiveness to unpredictable events.
The business case for working alongside a part-time Centennial vendor throughout your IT audit process has never been clearer.
Implementing SAM in your Organisation
As previously discussed, there are many potential benefits to employing a good software asset management strategy within your company, both monetary and otherwise. It is therefore important to determine which branches of SAM you should deploy first since some benefits will be achieved more quickly than others. Some may take a period of years to be fully felt.
The discovery process can be seen as three basic stages that have to be performed to really develop an accurate picture of the usage of software assets within your company. These are:
Inventory
Inventory is the most basic function of the discovery cycle. It is important that an accurate inventory of IT assets within your organisation is created to help your IT managers to maintain baselines for your IT network.
Thankfully, this process can now be automated and even the largest of infrastructures can be investigated and analysed in a reasonably short period. Inventory must be able to identify your IT assets regardless of their physical location or technological characteristics.
Capture
The second step in the discovery cycle involves the capture of the license entitlements that concern the software assets discovered in the inventory. The capture process should gather entitlements for all of the software that is installed on your network, even when the software is not currently used.
The risk of human error can be mitigated by using automatic tools that are specifically created to create a library of license entitlements. Packages that are currently employed are incredibly efficient at gathering accurate information.
Identification & Validation
The third step is to match up your software inventory to the repository of licensing information that were built in the last two stages. Errors may have been made anywhere from the original invoices for software to the most recent audits performed on your IT system.
One crucial factor in the validation step is the ability to associate the license entitlements within your system to your organisation’s proof of entitlement. This will be essential if any arguments with software resellers arise as a consequence of the discovery cycle.
Once these steps have been undertaken you will have built an incredibly detailed picture of how your IT network is serving software programs to its users. It will be a lot simpler to identify particular trouble areas on your system, or areas of software usage that are no longer of any particular benefit to your activites. This detailed image can be used for future reference as well.
You can now commence a period of reconciliation on your network. You should compare the software programs that are actually installed on your network against the licensing and support contracts that you are paying for and bridge any gaps between the two. This is when the financial benefits of SAM start to take effect.
The software spread within your network may include many hundreds or even thousands of individual instances, and there may be any number of restrictions that may be involved with the licensing contracts you have in place. It is therefore a necessity to automate the reconciliation stage, utilising one or more tools to apply intelligent rules to the process.
There is a growing respect in the IT world toward Centennial vendors because they can provide vital services for a modern business.
Compliancy and Flexibility with Software Asset Management
Many of the fundamental principles of a modern software asset management strategy are based upon the principles set out in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL. This library details a number of principles and best practices that should be adopted for successful management of IT operations. The ITIL can be found online.
This library is a changing publication and is often updated with new concepts and techniques that cater to the constantly changing IT backdrop of modern business. A good SAM strategy should be fluid enough to comply with the guidelines laid out in the ITIL whilst meeting the changing needs of the business within which it is actively utilised.
The International Standard Organisation (ISO) has published a standard that applies specifically to SAM practices. This standard, ISO 19770-1, is an exceptionally comprehensive set of guidelines that are designed to ensure that SAM is utilised in such a way as to “satisfy corporate governance requirements”.
The ISO standard should really be followed when planning a software asset management strategy for your own business, although the level of detail covered within can easily become a daunting prospect. It is important to remember that no matter what guidelines you follow when designing a software asset management strategy, whatever you decide to employ needs to help your organisation rather than stifle it.
Creating a full and comprehensive software asset management strategy for your own organisation may actually never come to fruition. Your plan must be flexible to change and grow as your organisation does, and it must allow for updates to your daily activities, no matter how trivial or fundamental they might be.
Conclusion
It is easy to see that as the extent and importance of IT systems within your organisation grow, so does the need for good and efficient monitoring of these systems. Gone are the times when an IT branch was a luxury that would sometimes progress the business. Computer systems are now vital to the modern company. Critical systems need to be monitored to an appropriate level.
As with other parts of any organisation, a number of separate strategies should be considered and used in order to ensure the smooth running of daily activities. software asset management should not be the only tool used to manage technological resources within your company, but rather one of a number of complimentary policies used to manage the system as a whole.
So if you think that your company is really suffering from a lack of structured monitoring and management over its IT network, or that the possible benefits described in this article could manufacture a crucial market edge over your competitors, then it would be well worth researching how software asset management could be used within your organisation. There may be no time to spare.